The End of the Sith
by broomsticks1
Summary: A young man driven into hiding after Order 66 struggles to come to terms with the fact that he and his sister may be the last of the Jedi as the threat of the Sith looms over them, but when trouble comes they find an unlikely ally in a mysterious old man.
1. Chapter 1

The sun began to set over the cool desert plains of the planet Jakku as the six young Jedi trained outside. Eric Clark, hardly more than a trainee himself at nineteen years old, watched the young soon-to-be Jedi out of the window of a nearby hut.

"I worry about you letting them train out in the open like that, Eric," he heard a voice behind him.

_Not this again._

"The Jedi have been gone for over three weeks and we've been here for two with no problems. Relax, Jenna. Everything's gonna be fine. This place is in the middle of nowhere on a planet that's _already_ in the middle of nowhere."

"Look," Jenna sat down in a nearby chair. "I know you're just doing what dad would've done if he'd survived, but don't you think this is a little _too_ risky? What if they find us? Then everything we've done will be for nothing."

"They'll never find us out here, don't you remember why we chose this place? You can count on one hand the number of people who don't live on this planet who have ever heard of Jakku."

"You don't need to know a place when you have the Force to guide you," Jenna replied matter-of-factly, twirling her brunette hair absentmindedly between her fingers.

"I'm your older brother, Jenna. Just trust me on this one."

"By one year."

"And I've had one year more training than you have."

"If you think that gives you the qualifications to train six future Jedi on your own then you're delusional. You can't run to anybody for help or guidance and the Jedi Archives are all but destroyed, and we probably couldn't even get to them if we wanted to. As far as we know we're the last Jedi in the galaxy."

"That's why we _have_ to train them, Jenna. This is _so much bigger_ than me just doing something for dad."

"Do you actually think you can revive the Jedi Order with just the two of us and six kids?"

"Maybe not, but we have to at least _try_, Jenna," Eric replied exasperatedly. "We may succeed or we may fail miserably, but I could never live with myself if I didn't at least try."

"You're so difficult," she groaned and pushed a hand through her hair. "I respect your commitment, but I don't think the potential good that can come from this situation can even begin to make up for the risk involved."

"As usual, I respect your opinion," he replied, not looking over at his sister.

"I don't say this to nag you or to be the annoying little sister, I just don't want you to drive yourself crazy over this."

"I know, and I appreciate the concern. I just-"

"Stop," Jenna cut him off and held up a hand. "Did you sense that?"

"Someone's coming," he replied before leaning out of the window and whistling loudly, a signal for the trainees to immediately cease any suspicious activities and do anything else, which this time consisted of kicking a nearby ball back and forth to each other. "Can you tell who it is?" he asked as he reached out with the Force to try to found out for himself.

"I think it's the old man who lives on the cliff about halfway up the mountain."

"I can't imagine what he'd be doing down here. I don't think he's been down here once in all the time we've been here."

"Not that I can remember," Jenna shook her head. "It may not even be him. All I can tell is that it's a man, and the old man on the mountain is the only living person nearby, so it makes sense that it would be him."

Before Eric could reply there was a loud knock on the front door of the small hut. Jenna slowly moved to open it, and standing in the doorway was a tall man with graying black hair and a beard to match wearing a long brown cloak.

"Hello," Jenna said slowly as Eric moved across the room to lean against a cabinet that had his lightsaber hidden in one of its drawers.

"Hello," the old man replied gruffly, shooting Eric a glance as if he could read his thoughts about his lightsaber.

"Would you like to come in?" Jenna asked, unsure of what else to say.

"I won't be staying long," he held up a hand. "I just wanted to pass on that I heard in town that a big sandstorm is supposed to hit this area sometime over the next few days. I have some room in my house if you guys need a place to stick it out."

"Thanks for letting us know, and we'll keep that in mind," Jenna smiled at him.

"I'll be heading out then, enjoy the rest of your day," he smiled and gave a small bow before pulling his hood up and turning to walk in the direction of the nearby mountain.

"That was weird," Jenna said as she closed the door and returned to her chair.

"Probably feeling us out," Eric looked over at her. "We've never spoken to him before, so he probably just wanted to get a closer look at everything and used the sandstorm as an excuse."

"Probably right," she shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm surprised you're not paranoid about that too."

"He seems nice enough, and if he wanted to hurt us I'm sure he would have already."

"I hope you're right."

"So do I," she replied, sounding slightly unsure of herself.


	2. Chapter 2

The old man on the mountain sat at the lone table in his small hut, a tattered book open in front of him with a crudely drawn map of the galaxy next to it.

_I should just leave now,_ he thought. _I have to at some point, so no point in putting it off._

"You refuse to begin your quest out of fear, don't you," a deep voice spoke from across the room.

"Why do you ask if you know the answer?" The old man didn't look up at him.

"I want to hear you say it."

I swore when I renounced the ways of the Sith that I would continue your work and finish what you started. Why so impatient, Gravid?"

"The genocide of the Jedi Order has taken place and the Sith has risen once again. You've already delayed for far too long, so put the preparations you have made in place and find what you can before Sidious gets his hands on it."

"How can I be sure he hasn't combed the galaxy and taken everything for himself already? If there are as many relics of the Sith Lords of the past as you say there are, wouldn't he have found most of them already, if not all of them?"

"There's no way to be sure what he has and hasn't found," the ghost of Darth Gravid replied flatly. "Sidious has shrouded himself in the Force. All we can do is assume he has nothing and work fast to track down as much as we can."

"Does your castle still stand?"

"It does," Gravid nodded, "and the knowledge of how to penetrate its defenses died with my old apprentice. Sidious may be exceptionally strong with the Force, but there are some things that not even he knows."

"I promised you the better part of ten years ago that I would do this, and I intend to."

"And you've been living in this desolate wasteland for that entire time."

"I know I have, and I plan to leave, but I just feel _drawn_ to this place for some reason. Like I _can't_ leave."

"You feel as if the Force has led you here all those years ago just to watch over a small group of exiled Jedi trainees?"

"I do," the old man nodded. "It's only a matter of time before Vader comes for them, and I have to be here when he does."

"You swore off your old ways and put down your lightsaber when you came to this place. When the time comes, will you be able to pick it back up, Vastrius?"

"If it comes to that, I believe I can."

"You were unmatched in your prime, but do you think you can take on Vader after you've secluded yourself for all these years?"

"I don't fear Vader," Vastrius replied flatly, not looking up at the apparition.

"Surely you've heard about him?" Vader raised an eyebrow.

"Only stories in town, but when the time comes that won't deter me. Nothing will."

"Why do you care for them so much?"

"They're the last of the Jedi Order. If properly trained they can help fight the Sith."

"Do you believe that, or do you stay to protect them out of guilt for all of the Jedi and innocent people you've killed in your life?"

"Both, I suppose," Vastrius replied.

Before Gravid could reply, a deafening roar filled the air. Vastrius hurried to the lone window in the hut and looked up at the sky to see a large triangular ship hanging high in the atmosphere with two ships descending from it.

"It's time to make your choice, Vastrius," Gravid said from behind him.

Vastrius turned from the window and hurried over to his small bed. He stooped down and pulled a small chest from under it, the only thing of value that he kept in his hut. Any other valuables were stored in his ship should he need to leave quickly and not have time to gather anything beforehand. He opened the chest and pulled out his lightsaber, the weapon he had used to take so many lives. He turned it over in his hand for a moment before clipping it to his belt, the first time he had so much as touched it since he had arrived on Jakku and placed it in that same chest.

He carried the chest over to the table and placed the books stacked on it and the map of the galaxy inside of it. He then walked over to the door of the hut and grabbed his cloak from a nearby hook. He slipped it on, pulled the hood up, and swept out into the dry desert air.

Eric was awoken by an earnumbing roaring sound coming from outside of their small hut. He jumped up from his small cot and hurried over to the window of the hut and looked up to the sky to see two small ships descending from a much larger ship.

_They've found us._

The children outside stared up at the ships, unsure of what to do. Before Eric could yell any sort of direction to them, a bright red beam came from one of the ships and hit the ground just to the side of the small group of children, throwing them all in different directions.

"What happened?" he heard Jenna behind him as she rushed to the window.

"They've found us," he whispered as he stared out at the still bodies of the dead or injured children as the two ships touched down nearby.

"How?"

"No idea, but we'll worry about that later," he rushed away from the window as the landing of one of the ships dropped to the ground and four Stormtroopers piled out of it. "We have to come up with a plan."

"Do you really think we can take them on?"

"We'll never make it if we run," he heard blasterfire from outside, most likely the newly arrived Stormtroopers executing any survivors, "but at least we may be able to take a few down." He opened a drawer and pulled out his lightsaber before tossing Jenna her own.

"Into the house," a mechanical voice from outside commanded. "One of you guard the door."

_Vader._

Before they could do anything more to prepare themselves, the door crashed open and three Stormtroopers rushed inside, closely followed by Darth Vader and another young man.

"Your efforts were commendable, but in vain," Vader stared at them, not moving. "For this reason, you may come with us peacefully. If not, this place will be your grave."

"You just killed defenseless kids," Jenna snapped. "Why would we want to join you?"

"Their lightsabers," Vader nodded to them, ignoring Jenna.

The young man of about Eric's age and height walked over to him and snatched his lightsaber from his tightly clenched hand, hitting him with an icy glare. He did the same to Jenna before returning to his spot behind Vader.

"Take them," Vader nodded to Jenna and Eric before turning to the door. "The Emperor will decide their fate himself."

Before he could take a step, Jenna held out a hand and a blaster pistol that had been sitting on top of a tall cabinet flew to it. She pointed the blaster at Vader and squeezed the trigger, but the blaster bolt was stopped in midair before it could reach him. The red beam dissolved into nothing before the blaster was torn from her hand to land on the ground at Vader's feet.

"The girl could be of use to us," Vader said after a few seconds of silence. "We will take her alone. Kill the boy outside with the others."

Eric's stomach hit the floor, but before he could do anything in protest he felt himself being shoved towards the door. The young man who was presumably an apprentice of Vader threw the door open and shoved Eric through it, but he tripped over something rather heavy. He pulled himself up from the ground and turned around to find a Stormtrooper on the ground with a large vibroblade sticking out of his eye socket.

Jenna gasped as she came to the doorway and Eric turned around to see a man standing a short distance away from the hut, not moving. His face was covered by the hood of his cloak and blue lightning popped and sizzled at his fingertips.

Vader pushed past everyone in the doorway and stood facing the man. Neither of them spoke or made any move towards each other. Vader's apprentice pushed his way forward.

"_Stand down,"_ Vader snapped over his shoulder. "Take the girl to the ship and wait for me there. Do not intervene."

The young man turned around, obviously frustrated, and walked over to Jenna. "Cuff her and take her on board," he said quietly. "I'm staying here."

The Stormtroopers nodded and did as they were told. Eric watched as Jenna was dragged away, absolutely powerless. There was nothing he could do without being killed himself.

"Will you surrender to a swift death or will you fight? Either way is of no consequence, as I've fought and killed so many other Jedi before you," Vader broke the silence between them, still not moving.

The figure pulled his hood down and spoke with a gruff voice.

_The man on the mountain?_

"I don't fear you Vader," he pulled out a lightsaber from under his cloak and ignited it, a bright red blade coming from the hilt.

"Then you will die braver than most," Vader replied as he did the same.

_The old man is a Dark Jedi? _Eric thought as he looked at the old man's lightsaber. _We've had a Dark Jedi living this close to us all this time?_

The two Jedi lunged at each other after what felt like an eternity. Their lightsabers slammed together loudly, but neither seemed phased. Vader broke away and jabbed with his lightsaber, but the old man quickly stepped back and swung his own in a wide arch that would have taken Vader's arm off had he not pulled it away at the last possible second. Vader swung his lightsaber again, but the old man blocked it easily, which was quickly followed by four more loud and forceful blows, each of which the old man block with little to no difficulty. He responded to the final blow with a hard swing of his own, which Vader narrowly avoided.

Vader raised his lightsaber once again, but the old man made no move to block the incoming blow. He instead swung his lightsaber up from the ground and sliced a large gash through Vader's abdomen, causing sparks to fly from the various electrical components that adorned it. He fell to one knee as sparks continued to fly from his black suit, at which point his apprentice pulled out his own lightsaber and sprinted forwards to confront the old man. As he raised his lightsaber to strike at the old man's back, he quickly spun in place and swung his lightsaber in the same motion as he had with Vader.

The young man fell to the ground screaming as his arm hit the ground beside him, cleanly severed from his body at the shoulder. The old man hardly glanced down at him before running over to Eric as the Stormtroopers hurried out of the nearby ship to investigate the situation.

"Come with me," he said quickly. "We don't have much time before they send more men."


	3. Chapter 3

**I had to change around some stuff in chapter 1 to fit with the time frame I'm using. This is supposed to take place a few weeks after Order 66, but I wrote chapter 1 with months in mind. Everything should be consistent from here on out. Enjoy!**

"So you're a Dark Jedi?" Eric hurried after the old man into his small hut high on the mountain, his chest stinging from the journey. However, the old man seemed unphased. "Are you a Sith Lord like Vader?"

"I'll explain later," he said as he pulled back a rug and pulled open a wooden trap door beneath it. "We have to get out of here before they catch up."

"Why should I trust you?" Eric asked defensively as the old man picked up a small box from a nearby table and walked over to the trapdoor.

"Because I'm your only hope of getting out of here alive," he climbed down a small ladder into the darkness below. "I'm leaving," he called up to him. "You're more than welcome to join me, or don't. It's your choice."

After a brief moment of hesitation, Eric descended the ladder into a dark and musty room. A bright light suddenly appeared and lit up the room, revealing the old man standing beside what looked like a Corellian freight ship of decent size. Eric watched as he tried to open a hatch that would lower a platform and allow the pair access to the ship.

"Are you sure this thing works?" Eric walked over to the old man.

"I check over everything daily, but I haven't flown her in years," he replied as the small platform finally descended and he climbed into the ship.

"Are you sure it can get us out of here?" Eric followed him into the ship.

Those Corellians know what they're doing when it comes to building ships," he replied from the dark interior of the ship. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

The lights suddenly turned on and Eric found himself standing in a large room with a tall console in the middle covered with buttons, levers, and screens. The large room was circular, the walls lined with various consoles containing more buttons and screens as well as cushioned chairs and storage cabinets. A single opening on the far side of the room led to what was most likely the rest of the ship.

"I've always preferred to fly her from this room since it's a bit more open than the cockpit," the old man mused casually as he walked around the console, pressing buttons and checking various screens. "The main purpose of the cockpit is for precision flying anyway, or at least that's what the previous owner told me when I got her."

"How fast can this thing go?" Eric joined him at the console.

"Fast enough for our purposes," the old man replied as the entrance platform raised itself and the ship revved up. "Especially with the element of surprise on our side."

He pulled another lever and the ship lurched heavily as it lifted off of the ground. The man then fished around in the pockets of his cloak and pulled out a small remote. He pressed a button on it before replacing it in his pocket and pulling yet another lever, which sent the ship streaking out of the cave that had housed it for so many years.

"What was that for?" Eric asked as he watched the man move around the console, adjusting dials and pressing seemingly random buttons.

"That entire mountain is gonna go up in about sixty seconds, and hopefully it'll take some of them with it."

"You think they'll think we died in it?"

"Probably not," he shook his head. "I'm hoping that it'll slow them down. They'll probably think I had something hidden there that I wanted to keep away from them so badly that I'd rather destroy it than have it fall into their hands. Once Sidious finds out that it was me living there he'll probably want it searched from top to bottom."

"_Do_ you have anything there?"

"Of course not," the man smiled. "Everything even remotely valuable to me is on this ship."

"Why would they search it just because you lived there?"

"Let me get us into hyperspace and I'll explain it all," he replied as he moved to one of the consoles lining the wall of the large room.

"To answer your question, I used to be a Sith Lord called Darth Vastrius. Many years ago," te old man sat down in a cushioned chair close to the one that Eric had taken for himself. "I was trained by Darth Sidious himself in the ways of the Dark Side."

"Then what brought you to Jaaku if you're a Sith Lord?"

"A combination of self-imposed exile and going into hiding," Vastrius replied. "During my time as a Sith Lord I studied the old teachings of the Sith extensively, learning much more than my master had ever intended. He saw that I was becoming more powerful than he could allow and may one day be a threat to him, so he tried to have me killed. The assassin was an easy kill, and then I took my opportunity and fled. I'd become disillusioned with the teachings of the Sith a short time before that, so my escape was inevitable anyways. For some reason I felt drawn here, so I settled on the mountain and closed myself off from the Force to hide myself until today when I revealed myself and confronted Vader."

"Yeah, how'd you do that?" Eric asked, casting the previous subject matter aside. "You took him down with pretty much no problem."

"Vader fights with brute force, not finesse. He'll hit you with a long strong of bone-shaking blows to tire you out then kill you easily, playing with you like a predator does with his prey. I knew that from the moment our lightsabers connected, so I knew I had to break it off as soon as possible so we could have a chance at escaping. Vader is exceptionally strong with the Force, but he relies too heavily on brute force."

"Can you teach me?" Eric asked, suddenly remembering his sister.

"I can, but I won't let you go running after your sister. The Dark Side of the Force is exceptionally powerful, and there's no way I can adequately prepare you to face it alone and stand a chance any time soon."

"But _we're_ going to find her, right?" Eric asked frustratedly.

"When you're ready," Vastrius replied vaguely.

"I learned how to fight at the Academy," Eric replied defensively. "What else do I have to learn?"

"You know how to swing a lightsaber and not hurt yourself, but there's still much you have to learn about the Force," Vastrius replied as he rose and walked over to the console and looked at a screen next to a set of buttons.

"If this is about the 'emotions are a path to the Dark Side' thing, then don't worry about it. I'll never join them. Not after everything they've done."

"The Jedi were fools to teach you to suppress all emotions indiscriminately. Emotions can be a powerful weapon, but only if properly controlled. I'll train you to not only control your emotions, but to use them to your advantage, and then I'll show you how the Jedi brought about their own demise."

"Take that back," Eric snapped severely as he stood up from his chair, anger exploding inside of him.

Vastrius smiled and looked at Eric over the console. "You still have so much to learn. More than you could even imagine."

"It sounds like you're trying to turn me into a Dark Jedi. Like _you_."

"You claim to have learned so much in your training, but you know so little," Vastrius slowly walked around the console, absentmindedly running a hand over it. "I'll show you the ways of the Gray Jedi, an old sect of the Jedi that walked that path between the Light and the Dark, realizing that one couldn't exist without the other. The Jedi were too rigid and caught up in their old ways and it clouded their view of the Force, which led to the rise of the Sith right under their nose."

Eric sat back down, unsure of how to reply. "You promise we'll go find my sister?"

"When you're ready," Vastrius repeated. "To resist and fight the Dark Side you have to understand it, and the Jedi tend to shield their students from the Dark Side altogether rather than teach them about it."

"Fine," Eric sighed. "So what now? When does my training start?"

"Soon," Vastrius repeated the word that Eric knew he would grow to hate. "First we're going to Ilum, just beyond the Outer Rim."

"Why?"

"If you're going to learn to fight, you'll need a lightsaber. Surely you remember Ilum?"

"It sounds familiar."

"It's where young Jedi choose their own kyber crystal to construct their first lightsabers. It also houses an old Jedi Temple, so we'll also take what we can before the Empire can get their hands on it."

"You really think they'll go for it?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," Vastrius replied. "There's no way we can know for sure on such short notice, but without the Jedi guarding it they'll most likely strip the planet of its kyber crystals. A large kyber crystal can have devastating powers if used by a person strong enough with the Force."

"And after that we'll start my training?"

"Eventually."

"Eventually?" Eric snapped. "We're wasting time here. What if they kill her?"

"They won't kill her," Vastrius didn't look at him. "At least not _yet_."

"So we should go before they do."

"Look," Vastrius snapped, looking up from the console. "I know the power of the Dark Side, and you aren't prepared to face it. You're welcome to go on your own and die or be captured, but if you want _my_ help we're doing it _my_ way."

"But what if they do hurt her?" Eric asked earnestly, rushing to stand at the console.

"Your first lesson is to live in the present," Vastrius replied. "All is as the Force wills it. Sitting here worrying about the future does more harm than good."

Eric sat back down, feeling that the conversation would most likely not progress any further if he continued to push the subject.


End file.
